On life, the universe, and everything else from terrible television to torte a la tortue.

Those of you who follow my blog regularly may have noticed that I always try to include a funny story, something educational (normally about culture), something about my daily life, and something about my journey with God. The past month or so I’ve sometimes been finding it hard to find something to talk about for all of these categories, and I have finally figured out the reason why. They are all blending together into one category called life. I am finally able to laugh WITH people and even AT other people instead of just laughing at myself (though that still happens an aweful lot; for example, I went with my host mother to visit a neighbour’s house last Saturday, and it turns out it was the house of the gardener at ODOV who had told me before that his house was near mine and I should come and visit. As we were leaving, he asked “Did you know how to get to my house?” As I previously had no idea which was his, I replied “no”. Then they all started laughing at me. Turns out he actually asked “DO you now know how to get to my house” Seeing as how it is literally three doors down from my own, I would have to be pretty dumb to get lost when you can practically see his house from mine.) Though I still have much to learn about Khmer culture, many things I used to have to remember are second nature now, such as how to greet people, table manners, hearing tinny music at 4:30 AM, when it is appropriate to honk your horn (pretty much all the time, in case you were wondering), etc. As for daily life, why wouldn’t everyone want to eat rice three times a day? And who needs showers when a bucket works just fine? My spiritual journey continues as always, but even that has changed recently into more normal quiet times instead of “everything is so different, I can’t believe I’m here, help me God!” I can believe I’m here, and at this moment there is no place I’d rather be. 

Not to say that I don’t miss home, my family, friends, church, the cool fresh air of the east coast, and ice cream. Of course I miss those things and look forward to having them all again come July. But I have also been able to find a way of life here in Cambodia, and though it is vastly different from my life at home in Canada, I feel happy and at home here as well. One day I was reading my bible, and it was talking about giving up everything to follow Jesus. It is one of those verses where I think a lot of people tend to say “of course I would be willing to do that… if Jesus asked me”, but he already has. Of course that will look different depending on the situation. For me, it looks like this: suddenly being away from my family for a year doesn’t seem like such a long time from the perspective of eternity, eating rice three times every day is not such a big deal, using a bucket bath is a small price to pay, I can trust God to fully provide for my needs even when I am not able to be a regular member of a strong Christian community during my stay here.

Now, I may have shared this before, but I’ll say it again. Someone once shared a piece of wisdom with a group of university students at the Meeting Place Church that I have never forgotten. It was something along the lines of “wherever you are, live like you will be there forever.” This was a really important piece of wisdom for me to here, as I am one of those people who tends to guard her heart very closely until I am sure that something I invest my emotional energy into is something that is going to last long term. Even though I know that my stay in Cambodia is only for a year (at least for now), this piece of advice has really helped me to open up, get involved in the community here, be dedicated to learning the language, and enjoy life here in Cambodia as Cambodians live it, with the inevitable result of being in that vulnerable place where you become deeply attached. The more I learn about Cambodia, the more I am amazed at how far this country has come since the horror of the 70’s. My host mother even opened up the other week and started telling me about how her family split up and ran in different directions, many of them living in Vietnam during that time. She was only 2 months old when it all started. On the other hand, the more I learn of corruption, injustice, and environmental management disasters in the news, or hear about land-rights disputes in the emails sent around by MCC, my heart breaks for Cambodia, and I am reminded how much this country needs people sharing the love of God, the support of the nations, and for her own people to stand up and make a difference. I’ll talk more about that next time. Suffice it to say, that the longer I am here, the more I see of Cambodia’s joys and the sorrows, the more I am able to feel these joys and sorrows,  and the better I am able to understand God’s heart for the people of Cambodia.

Now this is all fine, but doesn’t solve the problem of what to blog about. But since we are on the topic of my life in Cambodia, and since I already have your undivided attention, I might as well go on a rant about television. After all, I spent a good hour and a half watching television with my family every day, which is a significant chunk of time. Cambodia airs daily television dramas from around Asia, all dubbed in Khmer. (I am not so sure I approve of the messages some of these shows give to young Cambodians, but unfortunately that’s not a battle I have the time to fight.) Sometimes we are watching up to three shows at once, flipping back in forth between commercials, at whim of whoever is holding the remote at the time. It is not uncommon in the course of one evening for us to watch snippets of Filipino, Indonesian, Cambodia, Korean, Chinese, and Indian dramas. Now, some of these shows are better than others. Some of the Khmer shows are very interesting, well done, and have given me further insight into khmer culture. However, there is this one show that drives me up the wall. First, let me explain one thing. Cambodians all think it is funny that I am scared of spiders. My host mother, whilst chasing a giant spider out of my room one morning, told me “it is OK, these ones do not bite. You can squash them with your hand.” Ummm, no thanks. BUT, nearly all Cambodians are scared of ghosts, and will do things like drive in the dark with the headlights off so ghosts don’t follow them home. Whenever dogs start barking in the night, I am told quite seriously that it is because of ghosts (not because of passing motorist we can’t see because they don’t have lights on). There was a new show that recently started about all of these people who turn into ghosts and start ripping people’s hearts out. Rather disturbing if it wasn’t so cheesily done. When it first started, someone told me it was a new Khmer show. My VERY first reaction was “THAT BIRD CALL DOES NOT BELONG IN CAMBODIA!!!!” I don’t even know what bird call they were playing on the soundtrack, but it didn’t belong. Nothing like messing up bird calls to drive a bird-nerd nuts. Then I thought I must have been mistaken and the show was from a different country, because it was clearly dubbed. But after careful observation, I decided that it was in fact a Cambodian show, they just recorded the soundtrack separately and did a terrible job lining it all up. Don’t even get me started about the concerts they show on the weekends when the dramas aren’t playing. They are little better than karaoke with backup dancers. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes they are great and I rather enjoy watching them, but sometimes the instruments aren’t even TUNED!! Aargh! Between the music and the birds, I guess I am hard to please.  

But enough about my television woes. I’ll survive. It has been very nice to spend the past couple of weekends just hanging out with my hot family. I really enjoy going to the market with my mother. This past weekend was very exciting at the market as a whole truckload of household supplies came in from Vietnam. The wares were spread out on large straw mats and everyone was crowding around haggling over the prices. There was also someone selling strange animals out of the back of a van. If that wasn’t sketchy enough to begin with, my mother told me they were good for medicine. And if THAT’s not bad enough, I didn’t even recognize what type of animals they were, with the exception of the snakes. Yikes! Thankfully my family did not buy any of them. However, we did eat a turtle they caught in the river last week. I’d meant to look up endangered turtles in Cambodia and if necessary rescue the poor creature from where it was being kept in the water cistern, but by the time I came home for lunch it was too late. At least I didn’t have time to name the turtle… that would really have been sad. More about naming animals next week.

Well, enough rambling for today. A quick update for those with some interest in what I am going to do after SALT: I have applied for an internship position with an organization called ECHO. They do pretty much the same thing I am doing at ODOV (testing different vegetables and techniques under different growing conditions) but on a larger scale in Florida. From there, they distribute information and seeds to farmers around the world. They also have offices in several countries the world and do trainings on agriculture and help local farmers grow a variety of vegetables. The interviews (if I make it that far), are in March. I am also looking to see if MCC has other agriculture related service positions; just because I can’t stay with MCC in Cambodia, doesn’t mean I can’t stay with MCC. For that matter, just because I can’t stay with MCC in Cambodia doesn’t mean I can’t stay in Cambodia. I’ll have made good progress on the language by the time this year’s up, and am looking into other organizations that do conservation work in Cambodia. Finally, I can always find a program in Canada and start my Masters this September. Please pray that God will guide me in the right direction as I explore options around the world.

Yours truly.

Dina and Visaa (host siblings), cutest kids in the world.

I went shopping for pants with my host mother, and she and the shopkeeper insisted so much that I finally caved and bought these pants. They are just os not me. But that is why they are so great! The first day I wore them to work, everyone commented on how beautiful they were and how I look just like Khmer.